Mike Bobo says Faton Bauta has a “good chance” of unseating the returning starter and winning the starting quarterback job at Colorado State.

“The thing about Faton, I had him for three, coach (Mark) Richt had him for another year, he hasn’t played a lot of football. When you’re a third-team guy, you don’t actually practice a lot. As spring went on for us, he got a lot of reps and you saw a guy get better and I saw some improvement.”

or perhaps saw that CMR was not going to be on the sidelines much longer and though it strategic to get HC experience and come back to UGA in 4/5 years. I doubt he (or the fans) saw things changing so quickly in 2015

This ^ .. I think CMR advised Bobo is was time for him to go be HC. I think Bobo was fully aware of tenuous nature of CMR’s staff at UGA. I think Bobo saw Jim McElwain leave Alabama, go to CSU and come back to the SEC within 5 years and decided it was a good professional move for him. Maybe if UGA had offered him a lot more money and a title of HCiW, but I doubt it would have worked out.

It was time for Coach Bobo to take the head job somewhere. Same for Coach Smart. You can’t hoard quality assistants forever. Before long no quality assistant will what to come if they don’t have chances for advancement.

BS. Nothing kept that kid from tucking it and showing off his talents rather than tossing it to orange jerseys. Faton did that. Truth is that the kid was never that athletic and even if he were, he had little interest in showing the gator’s defense that he was.

Except having plays called that were not set up to help a running qb have success if he kept the ball. Forcing a mobile qb to be a pocket passer was one of the many bonehead moves by Pastor Poochy. Why bother playing Bauta if you are going to call the same plays Lambert has been executing? Of course, that hard headed dumbass would have forced Deshaun Watson to play as a drop back passer if he had come to Georgia.

I still think Richt intentionally threw the Florida game in order to be fired and be able to take the Miami job and get the $4 million. If he beat Florida, he would have won the East and there was no way he would have been fired. He would have had to quit to take the Miami job and he would not have gotten the $4 million.

I still think Richt intentionally threw the Florida game in order to be fired and be able to take the Miami job and get the $4 million. If he beat Florida, he would have won the East and there was no way he would have been fired. He would have had to quit to take the Miami job and he would not have gotten the $4 million.

You keep saying this. I keep wondering why a guy who famously refused to Sexton UGA to leverage salary increases suddenly decided to throw a game for money.

Not to mention when Georgia played Florida, Richt still hadn’t signed his contract.

He wanted the Miami job and he wanted the $4 million. He couldn’t quit and get the $4 million. He had to be fired.

He didn’t get Sexton to try the leverage because he was scared. He hadn’t done anything of note other than crap the bed in big games for years. If he had pushed for a big increase, McGarity might have put pressure on him to actually perform and he knew he was doing the most he possibly could or was willing to do and was never going to win anything that mattered. He was starting to feel some heat because he couldn’t win a championship of any kind. The Miami job opening up changed everything. He wanted to go there to be the “savior” and not have to worry about any heat under his ass for a few years.

As to him not signing his contract; if I were McGarity I would not have honored the terms and would have made him sue Georgia. He might have gotten the money but it would have certainly changed the way his disciples saw him Not signing his contract was another example of his lack of attention to details and laziness in my opinion.

Yeah, this is a stretch. I think Richt probably got to the same place that a lot of us were at: it was simply time for a change. I think he realized that it would be easier to install the type of culture he thought would be necessary to compete with Saban at some place where he had a fresh reserve and goodwill versus at UGA where he had his superiors questioning if they were throwing good money after bad.

He is a very good coach, but the details did him in and his propensity to let things resolve themselves obviously did him in with whatever the f happened post-Florida with Pruitt. It looked by any objective measure that the captain didn’t have control of the ship.

I actually expect that Richt is going to win pretty big pretty quickly at Miami. From the outside looking in, he certain appears refreshed and seems to be learning from his mistakes the first time around (get his guys on the O staff and fill the D staff with guys he won’t have an emotional resistance to firing).

“Very good’ coaches pay attention to the details and don’t hope problems resolve themselves. That said, I’m sure he will be a step up from what Miami had. I expect him to have a couple of pretty good years before his basic nature takes over and he loses attention to the details and starts letting problems take care of themselves, but he won’t “win big” as in championships.

40 year old Richt was driven, detail oriented and focused on winning. 55 year old Richt likes the big paychecks and wants to be able to be home in time for supper.

A really f***** analysis even with the advantage of hindsight. I’m sure in your position as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company you’re charitably kind enough to give us your astute summary of a damn good coach’s career. You’ve wasted this blog space and our time, so f*** off, genius.

Lambert had been “executing?” If you mean burning the offense at the stake, I guess that’s right.

I don’t think it made a lot of sense to change the entire offense for a game. The issue was whether bauta could throw as well as lambert and add the additional dimension of tucking and picking up cheap yards. If you watched the big game this year you saw Watson do that several times to Alabama. Very tough to defend a guy that can drop back, survey the field, and tuck it and go when there’s no where to throw it. Bauta was supposed to do that. Instead he kept chucking it to orange. That’s on Faton.

As far as an offense of designed runs, I’m still not convinced that bauta is that good of an athlete. If your going to rely on your legs in this league, when you run you better look and say “wow!” I never saw anything approaching a “wow” moment for bauta. It’s just not there.

Let me ask this: If bauta had gone to tech would you shit yourself? Neither would I. He’d be back up to the guy who won 3 last year. He just ain’t that good.

You might be right about him not being that good. If you are, that would be even more damning on Richt. If you, not to disparage your qb evaluation skills, can see that Bauta is not that good, certainly a top level college coach making $4 million a year because of his knowledge should be able to see that.

Throwing a qb who has not played any, to speak of, into a huge game and not changing any of the play calling to take advantage of that qb’s skill set makes no sense on any level other than the coach was doing all he could to lose the game.

Lambert was in no danger of being mentioned as a Heisman candidate, but he had managed to win every game but one and he could have won that one but for a dropped long pass.

Words are woefully inadequate to convey how glad I am that Richt is gone.

Agree he is not anything but a 3rd string QB, if he is Bobo’s QB this year and he wins 7 games it will be downright amazing. I think if he is Bobo’s QB they might win 5 and that would be a stretch even in the MW Conference….

You certainly have proven me wrong. Even your abridged version is the ultimate take down. The analytics, the analysis, the factual support combined in an unassailable thesis. Your comment is a tour de force of football knowledge. Well, allow me to retort in a manner that you’ll surely relate to:

Perhaps it was his inability to play quarterback? That sort of thing is difficult to overcome.

The truth is that the kid wasn’t talented enough. They took him to get scout team looks with the hope that he might blossom into something else. He didn’t. And it’s not like they didn’t give him a chance, they did. Kid had the biggest stage he’ll ever have to show what he could do. Total flop…

I still think Richt intentionally threw the Florida game in order to be fired and be able to take the Miami job and get the $4 million. If he beat Florida, he would have won the East and there was no way he would have been fired. He would have had to quit to take the Miami job and he would not have gotten the $4 million.

Really,Holy crap JC, I’ve always wondered if you dressed like Aqualung , wiped your boogers on your shabby cloths, and talked to yourself way too much but this proves it. Jeez JC what are your positions on the Kennedy assassination , lunar landing and Hillary’s vote on the Iraqi War . I bet those would be F—ing fascinating . This is actually helpful in many regards , I now know to recognize you for what you are the lunatic fringe. You are this blogs version of the man on the streets of NYC who talks way too loud to himself and smells funny. I will do with you what I do with that homeless psychotic in the Big Apple….walk to the other side of the street ,don’t make eye contact and do not engage….do not engage. DSM 5 , diagnosis……. Richt derangement syndrome

When Bauta signed with UGA wasn’t he dubbed ‘tebow-lite’, or something to that effect. His arm was okay, he had some talent and athleticism, and unquestioned work ethic. But if you’re not a statue-esque prototype drop back QB, or willing to completely ditch those aspects of your game, CMR has little use for you. Conner Shaw, who’s combination of passing and scrambling fricken killed us in a few games, never wouldn’ve seen the field at UGA. I won’t be surprised if Bauta finds success – IF CMB adjusts his game plan to maximize his talents.

Are you kidding? Connor Shaw plays in the NFL and would have hands down started every game for Georgia over the past two seasons. I’d personally take him 10 times out of 10 over Aaron Murray. If you can win at SC you can damn sure win in Athens. Come to think of it Shaw did win in Athens.

Connor Shaw is a backup QB for the Browns. I’m not convinced he’ll make in the pros at this point. Was he better than Murray? Maybe as a college QB, maybe not. Murray sure had better passing stats, and our coaching staff didn’t let Murray run. Shaw is a tough son of a gun, I’ll give him that.

My apologies. It was the late great Stephen Garcia at the helm in 2011, which makes Murray look a lot better. Of course coming out of high school Murray was the better choice. I’m talking about hindsight if that’s something you can wrap your mind around. Maybe if I post the video of the entire 2012 SC game it’ll prove my point.

Just wow! I knew eventually the guy who egged the best QB in UGA history’s house would surface. Even if you were in a coma for the Murray years, there are plenty of sites with stats and mucho film to enlighten you.

That film would be riddled with int’s, tipped passes, and failure. It would also feature Murray putting up huge numbers against an SEC East that was so bad Georgia’s only real competition was South Carolina who btw dominated Georgia during Murray’s tenure. We somehow managed to beat Florida consistently despite Murray being no better than average if not downright terrible on every trip to Jacksonville. Did I miss anything?

Yes, at least three, maybe four, of the best years UGA ever enjoyed at QB. Certainly the best career. And from a man who was a great team leader, and a football warrior. But since you obviously missed them, enjoy catching up with the rest of the UGA fans. We also had an OC during those years that could light it up with a QB like Murray at the controls, might enjoy watching that combo.

Not surprising to see you aligned with this fount of football knowledge/perspective. Similar football IQs some might say. But hey, it is a game that can be enjoyed by all, you don’t have to understand it. Good music, people cheering, pretty ladies, lots of color, etc. Certainly UGA is the only team that plays teams of lesser caliber some weeks, and the SEC is known as the patsy of all CFB. You guys should hang out, you seem to enjoy the same mind altering things on Saturdays. But try not running down the home team and it’s players/coaches, some actually appreciate them and their efforts.

Murray is/was a good kid, played hard, did his best, but he wasn’t a “great” college qb. He put up good stats against weak opponents and pretty much folded against the better competition. He did his best and I always pulled for him but I can’t recall a big win where he put the team on his back and won the game. The Auburn game with the tipped pass is probably the best example of him really willing the team to win and that game was a lost. I’ve always said Murray and Richt had a special relationship because they were mirror images of each other and were almost identical in their careers. Both were good but not great and both had great stats but nothing to really show for them.

Lots of folks hate what I say but they can’t ever seem to refute my assertions with facts. Saying a guy had great stats and a strong arm doesn’t counter the fact he never won a championship.

Your “stats” are irelevnt,they are team results, we are talking about a position. Don’t know why some folks can’t get that. Murray didn’tplay defense, that alone is why we didn’t win a champioship while he was there. And if you didn’t see him lead that team you should simply say “I didn’t see many games during those four years”. Entitled to your opinion, but keep it on point. AM was a QB, not the entire UGA team. I can think of no other UGA QB that could have done what he did during that period.

Not sure how this got to be a Murray vs Shaw argument, because I never said anything inferring that. I felt Shaw’s skillset, just like Bauta’s, would be considered a liability in CMR’s offense. I suppose the same can be said of Watson’s skillset.

Perhaps CMR suffered from the same problems with QBs that the nfl complains about. If high schools don’t use a prototype nfl offense, their QBs aren’t likely to develop those particular skills. Then we reach on guys like Bauta, hoping they can adapt to the CMR way.

He had chances to run, he just didn’t. I don’t know if trusted his arm to make the throws or he really didn’t want to get hit. I remember vividly yelling “run!” and then he’d throw a pick.

First off. play: wildcat with #1 27 yard gain. Called back for a hold on #48. That’s jes coachin’ right thar! No no designed QB runs in the game plan right? Except play #1.

Second play: p/a pass to #1 in the flat for 8. Then a false start by a 6th year guy. Fortunately, we punt this time.

Second series: first play is a bootleg pass. Bauta, much like a statue, runs to his left and throws for 9. I’ve seen da Vinci’s David asked to do more with his feet. Twice #22 can’t get a yard one on one with a LB. Punt. Before you say #1 should have been in there, he was hurt.

Third series: First play drop back pass to #83 for 5, Second play: P/a pass to the other team. Watch it at 37:40

Look at how much room he had if, instead of forcing a terrible pass, he runs to his left in response to the pressure. If you want to blame someone on the side line for that, whatever….

You would think a good coach would have realized the qb experiment was going horribly wrong and put someone else in…if he wanted to win the game. That leaves two possibilities; either the coach is not good at all or the coach wanted the team to lose the game.

I’m not sure what the ultimate rationale of starting Faton against Florida was. But it going as badly as it did, coupled with Richt’s incoherent halftime interview at that game, left me thinking he had no clue what was going on within his own program.

I suspect McG and whoever writes the big checks came to that conclusion as well. 2014 and 2015 in Jax were the final nails.

They were the only nails. Kirby needs to understand this at his own peril. Losing to UF in a game that’s not competitive would be the end of the honeymoon period. While Alabama is king of the SEC hill, Kirby needs to wake up everyday thinking about what do we need to do today to beat UF.

Right, because being successful at a Mountain West school would definitely translate to the SEC. Give me a break.

That being said I actually thought Bauta played comparatively well against Florida. 2 of the interceptions he threw were not his fault, his receivers dropped two TD passes, and the completions that he had across the middle of the field were better than any that we saw from Lambert or Ramsey.

However, I challenge anyone who is dense enough to think that Bobo was an elite coordinator to name any year that he was OC in Athens and I’ll give you at least two games where the offense failed us. In fact, most years I can give you 3-4 examples.

I would also point out that the people in charge of evaluating him didn’t think he was very good either which is why he was paid a relatively low salary. Finally point, he won 7 games last season with a CSU team that won 10 games the year before he arrived.

Here I am bored at work on a Friday thinking nobody is going to take my bait, and you come along to make my day. Bless you sir.

In 2012 the offense scored 7 points in a loss to SC which you have acknowledged. They also scored 17 points with Murray throwing 3 interceptions in a win against Florida, if it weren’t for Georgia’s defense causing 6 turnovers (one of Grantham’s only high points) Georgia gets blown out. Then there was the abject failure at the end of the Bama game which Georgia wouldn’t have even been in if not for Alec Ogletree returning a blocked FG for a TD.

As for 2013, I won’t be too hard on the 26 points in the Mizzou game since it came directly on the heels of injury laden trip to K’ville, but 20 points against Vandy was a total joke. I don’t care who’s injured our backups are infinitely more talented than their starters. Which brings me to the 19 points against Nebraska. How do you only put up 9 points with Todd Gurley, Chris Conley, and Michael Bennett?

I’m glad you brought that up because it was Bobo who evaluated Mason and dubbed him an SEC caliber qb despite his lack of ability to throw more than 35 yards downfield with any accuracy.

Also, I have no doubt that big time Bobo recruit Brice Ramsey would have started last season, but since he left for CSU we’ve seen what looks to be two different coaching staffs deem Ramsey to be worse than a kid that we plucked off of Virginia’s bench.

We’ve already agreed to disagree a few times on the whole mishandling of DeShaun Watson, so I won’t beat a dead horse. Suffice it to say I 100% blame Bobo that we didn’t have a shot to get a heisman caliber qb sitting in our own backyard.

Regardless 2014 was an impressive year, but 60+ against Troy and UK and hanging 55 on Charleston Southern doesn’t prove anything, it just pad stats. Granted they put up a lot of points against better teams mostly by handing the ball off to two heisman caliber rb’s.

Ultimately, when you pair 2014 with the rest of Bobo’s career as OC it’s an anomaly right? Well, with the exception of only scoring 20 against Florida, and 17 against Tech that is. Then there was the abomination on the goalline in Columbia, but hey we scored 35 right?

2014 was a blessing because it finally convinced somebody to take him off our hands. We ended up getting somebody worse, but at least we’re in the swing of firing guys when they don’t work out. In this sort of climate Bobo would have never made it past 2010.

I do have a fear of Kirby failing (because BM failed to do their due diligence and literally interviewed nobody but Smart bc you know…donors) and then Bobo returning to Athens as head man. Perhaps he’ll be a better HC than OC. Is that even a thing?

OK, I guess I’m just confused as to how pointing out the quarterback is relevant to the discussion.

Perhaps I am in the minority but included in that minority group would be the people cutting his small checks at Georgia and all of the other schools outside of Colorado Springs that were not interested in his services over the course of his tenure in Athens.

Yeah I’m stupid, but I notice you’re not touching my rebuttal to your comment ab the 12 and 13 seasons. Cat got your tongue on the subject or do you just have nothing to say? Either way it’s a smart move on your part. Best just stick to insults with no substance that proves you don’t know what you’re talking about.

There seems to be much he is confused about, and has no grasp of. Move along, nothing to see here….literally nothing from old Rip Van. Best offense ever at UGA…came to a screeching halt a few games into last season. What a contrast, we had been spoiled by CMB.

Anyone on this thread who thinks they have insight on what plays should have been called against Florida or any other team better have either coached or played a high level of college football. Otherwise go stick your head in the refrigerator and read the labels on the condiment bottles because you have no clue how far out of your element you are.

Senator, I would like to suggest for the Lexicon the term “Bill Shanksing” or perhaps “Pulling a Shanks” for the aforementioned fallacy of one thinking they have insight about play calling at the highest level of college football despite having never played a snap of college football on any level.

I can agree with the idea that it would be silly for a someone who’s never played a snap of competitive football at any level (that would include myself) to claim that they could do a better job than Bobo or Schottenheimer, etc. Making such a claim is beyond ludicrous.

However……

I don’t think it’s ludicrous at all for some such person to express puzzlement and incredulity at how Richt and Schottenheimer chose to use Bauta in the FLA game.

Mind you, plenty of people who played plenty of football at high levels (Gary Danielson for one) had the exact same reaction.

Fair point. I’m reasonable, and that was a well articulated and thoughtful response. Unfortunately there are a lot of Bill Shanks in the world who legitimately feel like they know better than the coaches.

You’re definitely right about that.
I have many friends and acquaintances who hold the keys to their favorite college or professional sports teams’ success….. if only someone would ask for their input!!!

I gotta say, I really don’t care about Bobo, CSU, or Faton Bauta. I hope they go undefeated and win their conference – it won’t effect us at all. I’m a lot more worried about our kicking game, and our current QB options, etc.

I understand what you’re saying. And in a way I agree: I don’t care whether another program succeeds or fails, just as long as Georgia does well. However, I can’t go as far to say that I don’t care at all about Bobo, or Bauta, or Richt, etc. Until recently they were Dawgs and I really like all three of them on a personal level and do care that they do well. I think they were assets to the program and really truly want to see them do well.

I think of some others associated with the program – Chubb and Michel especially – and how they have a reputation for being hard-working players and men of good character, and I know that if they were to leave Georgia (for whatever reason) for another program, I’d care about what they did to…..

All I’m saying is that I guess I’m not quite as detached from the individuals involved in the program to the point that once they leave the program they’re kind of dead to me.

Curious to see how Jacob Park does this season. He may have been our best choice at QB last season but bolted for reasons unknown. I am sure he had a feeling he wasn’t going to get his chance but last season makes me think otherwise.

According to a recent article in the Des Moines Register he’s competing for the #2 spot at Iowa State? I found this buy Googling his name…. I have to admit I had quite forgotten that he was headed to Iowa State this year after being totally absent from college football last year….

Quote Of The Day

“I’m thrilled for this day to get here, and I’m excited to find out how a lot of these new guys learn. These practices are not easy, and the idea is to create adversity for your team and find out who your leaders are.” — Kirby Smart, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 8/1/17